This is Tommy Rydling from DICE, and I’ve got two exciting pieces of news to share with PlayStation.Blog readers. First, we are very happy to announce the dates for the eagerly awaited Battlefield 3 Open Beta on PSN. The Beta is open to all and will run from September 29th to October 10th. You can join it by simply going to the going the PlayStation Store and navigating to the “View All By Title” section, then selecting Battlefield 3 – within there you’ll see the download for the Battlefield 3 demo!

Prepare for battle in the bombed-out metro tunnels on the outskirts of Paris in the upcoming Battlefield 3 Open Beta!

Alternatively, if you have redeemed a Medal of Honor: Limited Edition or Tier 1 Edition Online Pass, you will receive early access via a personal email invitation from DICE that includes 48-hour early access, which will allow you to start playing on September 27th.

The Open Beta is your chance to play Battlefield 3 early, try out our free social platform Battlelog, and give your valued feedback directly to those of us at DICE. You participating in the Battlefield 3 Open Beta means that you are not only helping us load test the servers, but more importantly, helping us fine-tune the final components of the multiplayer game.

During your time in the Open Beta, you’ll be playing on the map Operation Métro – a map you might have seen coverage of from E3, where we won the Best Multiplayer Game award.

But that’s not all for our PlayStation fans! You’ll be happy to know that beginning with our first expansion pack Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand (to be released later this year), all full-blown upcoming expansion packs for the game will appear one week early exclusively on PS3, brought to you by Sony!

As you may or may not have heard, Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand is a themed expansion pack containing four of the most loved maps from Battlefield 2, boldly reimagined in the Frostbite 2 engine. It also features new weapons and vehicles, unique in-game dog tags, new persistence, as well as new Trophies.

Make sure to stay tuned for more on the PS3 version of Battlefield 3 and all things related. And do let us know what you think of the Beta once it’s up and running. For more stories on Battlefield 3, feel free to check out the official Battlefield blog where I post from behind the scenes under the name “H Brun”.

I also wanted to say thank you for your continued support for DICE and Battlefield 3. Meeting our fans in person is always very rewarding and exciting. We went to gamescom with the PS3 co-op mission Exfiltration, and at Tokyo Game Show we let visitors play the single player mission Operation Guillotine. The response so far has been overwhelming, and we look forward to showing you more action from Battlefield 3 before the North American launch on October 25th.

Awsome news but don’t people get those maps free for pre ordering the game? Eitherway can’t wait to play BF3! I have already paid for my copy at my local gamestop so oct. Can’t come soon enough. BF3 FTW!

First I’d just like to say my sleepless nights can now come to an end. I have been keeping my MOH close to me counting the days till the beta opening. That’s great news I can’t wait to finally have a chance to play the beta, super pumped about the new support class. Thank you DICE thank you Sony b/c they pick us OOOOOOHH NICE!! I also heard someone say COD nah I’m not big on fish I’ll pass. OOOOHHHH haha.

Wow… this is making me too excited for Battlefield 3. Day one preorder is set, and I just can’t help but like how PS3 gets some DLC treatment. It almost seems like BF3 is the console to play the game on.

Cant wait!!! Love you DICE and think its awesome we get DLC a week ahead of xbox.
I am so pumped for BF3 I have two copies pre-ordered :)
Just a quick of question for you Mr. Ridling, Is the email we get for early access yet to be sent out or is that the one i got a few months ago? (Cause I already deleted it..oops!) Does it contain a code or what? Sorry but I’m curious, what you said doesn’t quite explain it. At least for me to underestand.

I have seen so many gameplay videos from different platforms and I have this overwhelming feel every time I watch them. I have not pre-ordered yet but something tells me that maybe I should really get it. Not jumping on the bandwagon or anything like that but I have to say, I want something to play for a change besides it being an FPS game and all. I mean, I haven’t played a Battlefield game since the first Bad Company and that was amazing when it came out.
I can’t wait to try out the beta and I would be happy to give some feedback on it. I’ll be supporting full on for DICE’s latest game! Thanks a bunch, DICE and Sony! Awaiting my deployment into the Battlefield.

I am happy PS3 finally gets some DLC first, but 1week early…. not really a big deal IMO. I just hope this game lives up to the hype. I am pumped for it, and would love it to do good on the PS3! Fingers Crossed!

+ Santos21 on September 22nd, 2011 at 6:12 am said:
Awsome news but don’t people get those maps free for pre ordering the game? Eitherway can’t wait to play BF3! I have already paid for my copy at my local gamestop so oct. Can’t come soon enough. BF3 FTW!

There are certain DLC that people who pre-order/reserve get free, but then there are other DLC that EVERYONE has to pay for.

Well its about damn time us get something first instead of xbox all the damn time, I was getting sick and tired of hearing about a new game or DLC coming out and they always put this line of text at the end “first on xbox live” >_>.

Thank you DICE and thank you Sony, we, the PS3 community, appreciate this a lot and I am sure we will be giving our support to Battlefield 3 since we are very mad with how activation has treated us with COD.

This is great news, and its a nice change from all this “xbox gets call of duty dlc before us”,, which i dont care about anyway but i know many more do, so hopefully this will cheer those people up a little bit.

I would like to request if we could get some more PS1 classics added

Puzzle Bobble – Published and Devloped by Taito Corporation, Designed by Seiichi Nakakuki (SNK).

Croc: Legend of the Gobbos & Croc 2 – Developed by Argonaut Software, Published by FOX Interactive, Designed by Nic Cusworth.

Thanks DICE I’m sure the game is gonna be awesome I am wondering about those expansion packs though are they the ones we get for pre-ordering or are they different ones?I’m just wondering a answer would be appreciated just so my mind won’t wonder on it

“Awsome news but don’t people get those maps free for pre ordering the game?….”

Yes you do get the Back to Karkand expansion free for pre-ordering but it’s not a day 1 release. The pack is not due out until next year. Dice would certainly want everyone to play the core game for a good while before releasing an expansion anyway. I suspect there are a lot of players who like you, think the free, pre-order Back to Karkand pack is a day 1 release but it’s not. You just get it for free when it’s released. Sorry.

I’m sorry but are you guys nuts? It’s a week. A WEEK. Nearly all DLC on Microsoft console gets a solid month. Don’t bother telling me “well atleast its a week”. You were probably the same people who said “at least its free” when Sony lost the private details of 70 million of its users.

This is an attempt to sway customers to buy the PS3 version over the Xbox version (which most people, if they have the xbox will get it for). It is pathetic.

I’ll say it again…

A. WEEK.

The PSN will be down in the middle of that week to update the Playstation Store too. whoopie?

only a week early? that’s not that big of a deal. what’s really going to make my purchasing decision for BF3 on PS3 or 360 is friendslist, controller (still undecided), but more importantly… load times and graphics. still waiting on a decent comparison to show up.

I will so enjoy this My Cod days are over Ive hit 15 prestiage its so boring now” Just saying how I feel. Battlefield 3 Is going to be so amazing im so exicted I wish it was comming out This week” Good things happen to those whole wait =D